Fishing Competition

 We had a busy weekend at the camp, as there was a big fishing competition called the Snapper 1000. Unfortunately not a lot of snapper were caught. The sea is quite weedy after all the wet and windy weather we have had, so they caught a lot of that. One lady said they went home with some kahawai, so they were pleased enough with the result.

The fishing starts at 3 pm and goes all night. It’s been going for at least 19 years. Inspite of the all night fishing they get a good turn out each year.

In case you don't know what a kahawai is I have put a photo below. It is also the called Australian salmon in Australia. The New Zealand name means strong swimmer. They have to be gutted and bled as soon as they are caught otherwise the flesh is very dark and not nice. They are lovely smoked.

Eddie caught one once, not long after we had started on our traveling journey, and we decided to smoke it for lunch, but we couldn't find the meths to light the smoker with. We hunted high and low. To this day, we don't know where it was. We bought a new bottle and I don't think he has caught a kahawai since.

Their Latin name is Arripis Trutta and they grow to between 5 and 6 kilos as adult fish.

Moving a Digger

 On Saturday, I went to work with Eddie. He was transporting a digger to a farmer. I haven’t been in a truck for a while, so it made a nice change. It was a bit nerve wracking for me when the digger was being loaded. It was on the ramp with the tracks in the air, until it got to a point when it dropped down on to the deck of the truck. It must be a disconcerting feeling to the driver. Eddie was on the deck telling the driver which way to turn. There wasn't a lot of gap between the edge of the tracks and the ramps. Pretty much the same size I think.

Eddie's truck

This is the digger waiting to be loaded.

All aboard. Now it just has to be turned around.

Ready to go

Once the digger is loaded they turn the body of it around so the shovel is at the back. Then it is ready to be unloaded.

On Wednesday, Eddie went off to work expecting to be working at a roadwork site all day. No one at the site seemed to know what they were doing or what was happening, but after a while they cleared off some of the seal for about 100 metres. The other truck took the old seal away and Eddie spread his metal into the gap for them to smooth it out. Then he was told that was it for the day!. Josh wasn’t happy. The 2 trucks had been booked for a week. Eddie was home by lunch time. 

We have been living in the flat at the back of the main house since Monday and we will be here for the next 18 days. Louise went off to the USA on Monday morning. I spent quite a bit of the day bringing up bits and pieces. Eddie brought  the rest in the car when he got home in the evening. I keep finding things I need. The kitchen here isn’t very well equipped, so I am going back to the caravan most days to collect something else. The trouble is, it will all need to go back soon enough. I will start taking things back a few days before we finish.

Wind and Whitebaiters.

 We have had lots of windy days at the moment. I feel we should have a kite to fly, although it might have been a bit much on Sunday. It was very windy.

Eddie spoke to a friend in Katikati on Sunday and he said it was so windy that when he was walking along the road with a friend they were leaning into the wind so much that, if it had stopped blowing they would have fallen down. They get strong winds there. They come over the Kaimai Range and dump down on Katikati. It’s called the Kaimai buster.  

I was in the office on Monday as Louise was shifting some of her things to Tauranga. She is going to be so gutted if the sale doesn’t go through in November and she has to move it all back again. When she is in America next week, we are going to be living in the little flat at the back. It’s the only part left with furniture in it. I will be the office girl for 18 days. By day 14 I will probably have had enough.

The photo is of a couple of hardy whitebaiters standing knee deep in water. Their legs must have been frozen. The river isn't that warm in the middle of summer.

Whitebait and a new Fridge

We have some lovely days, even though the wind is rather cool. We have had some showers today and the wind is quite strong.

Yesterday we went for a walk on the beach and we were glad we had warm jackets and hats on as it was very blowy.  

On Saturday, it poured with rain most of the  day. When the rain was really heavy Eddie popped out and washed the car and some of the caravan windows. Yes he is a little barmy. He reckons it’s the best time when everything is wet.

The whitebait season began at the beginning of September, and there are a few more campers in to go fishing. There are cars parked alongside the river bank all day at the moment. The ones I have spoken to don’t seem to be doing too well yet. The season has been shortened in an attempt to protect the stock levels, as there are less whitebait now than there were a few years ago. I don’t really like them. I’m not sure what all the fuss is about ha ha. 

The fridge that Eddie used to keep his beer in finally gave up the ghost a little while ago. The temperature display gradually went up, so it ended up  saying that the temperature was 51 degrees centigrade. Inside the beer was frozen, so that’s not good. We were able to get a new second hand one and went up to Katikati to get it a couple of weekends ago.